Skirting around the Shorts
by blueglows
Summary: A collection of short stories for Buzz Lightyear of Star Command. Some stories were written by request by close friends or as contest prizes from To Infinity and Fandom. Stories will not have correlation with one another unless otherwise stated. Please do not ask for requests.
1. NOS-4-A2 - What He Fears

**Summary: **"What scares the monsters: thing(s) NOS-4-A2 is, or would be, afraid of?" (Requested by Rook of To Infinity and Fandom)

* * *

If you could have asked NOS-4-A2 what haunted him at night, he would have answered "Nothing." What would he have had to fear? He was a robot, not prone to irrational fears like organics were, and any rational fears he should have as a robot were overcome by the knowledge that he WAS those fears personified. He was the threat of deactivation, often permanent, due to his attacks. He was a virus, corrupting the files of those he bit into, changing their programming to serve him and ONLY him... But, there were those that defied him. The little one had somehow regained control of his mind and defeated him... Defeat... That, in truth, was the concept that drove NOS-4-A2 to the edge in fear. He was never programmed to accept defeat. He was to win at any cost. Yet time and time again he was defeated, each more pathetic than the last. Stopped by a little girl. Beaten by veggies. Blasted off a planet after doing hardly anything! Each defeat played on repeat in his memory banks, crippling him in his times of rest and causing an obsession to win the next time at any cost, just as he was programmed. That was why, in his most spectacular plan yet, he used XL and the Wirewolf to try to take over. It was a risk, to take over Planet Z and then mutate the organic world, and if even one thing went wrong he would likely be defeated once again. It was a desperate bid to win at least once.

The spike through his chest didn't hurt nearly as much as the sheer terror through his mind as he realized that this was his final and most horrible defeat.


	2. Ty Parsec - Aftermath

**Summary:** "Ty dealing with the aftermath of the second time he turned into the Wirewolf and once he was reinstated back into Star Command; kind of like thinking about what happened and how he feels about it." (Requested by Fox the Writer)

* * *

It was over. It was finally over. He was human again, he was a space ranger again, and that darn NOS-4-A2 was finally destroyed and would never come back. By this time, he had a much better friendship with Buzz, the other rangers knew he could take care of himself, and he was actually pretty happy for once. Ty Parsec was ready and raring to get back to his job and take on his next assignment, and considering what he had gone through already, he was sure he wouldn't have to deal with some monster turning HIM into a monster once again.

Of course... He did have to think about whether or not he could turn into a monster, a Wirewolf, again... There would need to be a piece of Canis Lunis moon rock, and who was to say what was or wasn't out there, floating in space. That energy vampire found one and used it against him, and the moon had been blown up into thousands of pieces... Who knew what happened to the rest of them? He was sure many of the pieces would have been destroyed by going into planets' atmospheres, or into stars or something, but perhaps some pieces would still be out there? Perhaps some pieces would have been large enough to survive going through the atmosphere of a planet? A planet he might go to one day?

But, all of that was unrealistic, he assured himself. The universe was large, and the moon rocks were specks in comparison. NOS-4-A2 had probably sought out that rock that he used, and it was certainly not like Ty would be looking for any kind of rock any time soon. He was unlikely to find another moon rock, he was unlikely to change into a monster again. He was happy for once, and he wasn't going to let worry and anxiety over something that would never happen again get to him.


	3. XR - 100 Years Later

**Summary:** "Character: XR Prompt: 100 years later" In which XR thinks back on the things that changed 100 years since his construction. (Requested by Senior Doctor Thalassi of To Infinity and Fandom)

* * *

Even as eternal something seems as it's happening, things always changed as time went by. Even friendships changed, though if you were lucky you could still keep them regardless of what changes happened. Another thing the progression of time brought was the decomposition of most tangible things. Organics especially, but robots as well. Metal would rust, parts would lose their reliability, programming would become outdated... Unlike organics, however, most robotic parts could be replaced or improved upon, giving them a near-immortal appearance.

Then, of course, it proved sad for a near-immortal robot that lost its mortal organic friends and family.

It had been about 100 years since XR was constructed and the person who gave him life (or at least, signed for his life to be brought into existence), Commander Nebula, his own father, had been... Dead... For some time now... He didn't understand it at first. He was programmed to know what death was, but since death never felt permanent for him, he didn't know how to take the fact that his beloved father was never coming back.

He tried to keep the rest of his team away from anything dangerous (hey, eating lunch could be dangerous! All those unhealthy fats or the risk of food poisoning! Don't go in the shower, you might slip and crack your head open!) before they explained to him that Commander Nebula died of old age rather than being killed. Of course, they WERE Space Rangers, so there was always the risk that one of them would be killed on the job...

Luckily, he knew back then that Buzz would live to be at least 150, since the old coot version of him went back in time to save Mira once. Nowadays, 100 years since, Buzz spent a lot of his time working on that time watch to save Mira again.

Mira was back on her home world, busy being Queen of Tangea... They still visited her every now and then...

Booster was back on his family farm where he wanted to spend the rest of his days with his wife and kids... XR missed him the most, since they were best friends that hardly saw each other anymore.

XR was... Well, he was an old bot... Normally, other robots his age would be scrapped, but since he had THE Buzz Lightyear on his side, he was constantly repaired and upgraded, somehow managing to keep his original personality and all of his memories intact.

Well, except for the incident at the Holiday party a few years ago. For some reason that was a blur.

He didn't like the new team he was assigned to. They'd never have the same dynamic as his original team. The same close bond of friendship... But, friendship changed with time...

At least he wasn't scrap metal. At least he was still fighting for Star Command. At least he wasn't alone...

But everything had changed... Star Command itself wasn't like it was before, and he didn't like how even his own HOME had changed with time.

It wasn't fair! Why couldn't things just have stayed the same way! Stupid natural progression of time! He wanted his team back, his young and healthy, able to fight off any evil team! He wanted his dad to still be alive! There had to be some way to make it all go back to NORMAL.

"XR? What are you thinking about...?"

"Huh...? Oh, nothing... Where are we headed now?"

"Haha, well, you'd appreciate this... To infinity and even further!"

"That's, ah... 'And beyond'."

"...Oh."

He hated time. Just make it stop, please.


	4. Zurg - Day Off

**Summary:** The Evil Emperor Zurg takes a day off from evil, but a certain number one agent makes it more stressful than it should be.

* * *

It wasn't often Zurg decided to take a break from trying to take over the galaxy, but when he did, he deserved the day off more than anything. He had a perfect day off planned. All of his minions were told not to bother him for any reason unless he called for them, he had a platter of popcorn shrimp waiting for him, a good novel, and a music player with his favorite relaxing music set up.

The first thing Zurg did was relax in his arm chair and reach for the remote to turn on his music. He grabbed at nothing a few times before realizing that the remote was not where he had left it. Zurg narrowed his eyes remembering that Darkmatter was the last to use the remote and must have neglected to put it back. He'd not let that get to him though. All he had to do was get up and turn on the music player by hand.

He howled and covered his horns from the loud, blaring noise that played instead of his music and smacked the player in order to turn it off. He ejected the disc to find that it was one of Darkmatter's poor excuses for music rather than the relaxing music he ordered to be set up for his day off. He crushed the disc in his hand. That would show Darkmatter to do as he was told.

It was okay though. Zurg could still read his novel, even without music. He sat down again, picked up his book, and opened to the page he bookmarked...

...WHY was Darkmatter's handwriting all over the pages? Phone numbers, rude things, badly drawn sketches, all over his book! Zurg felt his eyes grow hot and he threw the book against the wall. He crossed his arms and slumped down, grumbling about his so-called number one agent's insolence.

...At least he still had his popcorn shrimp. There was nothing Darkmatter could do to ruin that, right...?

He lifted up the platter cover, took a glance at his food, and then slammed the cover back down, almost breaking the table. Martex ants! He told Darkmatter to exterminate those!

This "day-off" was quickly getting more stressful by the second. Luckily, it couldn't get worse, right?

Knock-knock. "Evil Emperor Zurg, sir, I was wondering if I could get an advance on my next paycheck?"

Zurg turned towards the door, eyes glowing hot, and fired laser beams right at it, melting the door and revealing Darkmatter on the other side. Darkmatter stared, dumbfounded, and then grinned nervously, taking a step away.

"I'll just... Come back later." The agent ran for his life and the emperor slumped into his chair again in hopes that he could at least get some peace and quiet and nap.

...There was a draft with the door missing.


	5. Booster and Ty - Team Munchapper

**Summary:** With Buzz and Mira captured and XR being repaired, it's up to Booster and his temporary partner Ty to save the day.

* * *

Buzz and Mira were sent out on a mission but had to leave the other half of their team behind. When they had to leave for their mission, XR wasn't yet repaired from their previous mission, and Booster's spacesuit was still being fixed by the LGMs. Booster's size and weight, though helpful on some days, had the drawback of needing a custom suit to accommodate him. He had pouted when Buzz and Mira got to go on their mission without him while he was waiting for the LGMs to repair his only suit.

Now, he was just worried.

They received word that his teammates had been captured by a group of villainous Shragarakians and now he and his temporary teammate were on their way to rescue them. Rangers needed back-up, after all, and XR was still being repaired.

Booster glanced over at the co-pilot's seat, watching the pensive look on Ty Parsec's face. Ty noticed his gaze and looked back at him.

"Hey, c'mon," he sighed. "It'll be fine. This is Buzz Lightyear we're off to rescue. He'll probably have those Shragarakians defeated by the time we get there."

Booster smiled, nodded. "Right. Just like the time Buzz was captured by the Pleefians of Pleefa-IX."

"...Right." Ty looked ahead, focusing on where they were going. "You know a lot about Buzz, don't you?"

"Buzz Lightyear history is my favorite class from the Academy!" Booster grinned.

Ty quickly brought his palm to his face. "Oh, that's an actual class now? _Wonderful_."

"It sure is!" Booster agreed, nodding. He was glad that his temporary teammate was someone experienced like Ty. It helped that they already knew each other too. It was odd, though. Ty was a higher rank, yet was assigned to the co-pilot's seat since he hadn't been assigned to a team position before. Booster was the leader for once, and even if it was just a two-person team, he was terrified of messing up.

The Jo-Adian gulped as they neared the moon the Shragarakians were hiding on, but gave the proper orders for landing like he heard Buzz say all those times before.

In the thirty minutes that followed, Booster and Ty managed to break into the Shragarakians' base. They were almost caught a few times, and Booster was close to panicking, but he knew to remain calm when his teammates lives were on the line. However, Booster and Ty were then cornered and the Shragarakians around them all had weapons pulled.

"What do we do NOW?" Ty asked, wrist laser up in defense.

"Um... Uh..." Booster's eyes darted around, trying to figure out how they were going to get out this mess. What would Buzz do? he asked himself. He then saw it and gasped. "Aim for the floor at their feet!" he whispered to Ty.

"What?" Ty asked, head whipping to look at Booster. "Well, okay, you're the boss."

Booster and Ty fired their lasers at the floor around the Shragarakians. The lasers made the metal weak to the point that it bent, and soon the weight of the Shragarakians caused the floor to snap and break apart, caving in and causing them to fall to the next level below.

Ty whistled in awe. "One of Buzz's moves?"

"Uh... No..." Booster smiled sheepishly. "I made it up just now."

"Nice."

"Thanks! Let's go find Buzz and Mira now!"

They made their way to the next level up and found Buzz and Mira. They got the two out of their holding cell and helped them back to the Star Cruiser. They got back to Star Command safely. Booster grinned with pride, knowing that he had done well even without Buzz's help AND saved the day.


	6. Ty Parsec - Voices

**Summary:** A side effect from NOS-4-A2's bite leaves Ty hearing things that no other organic can.

* * *

The voices were almost haunting in their consistency and words, but he did his best to ignore them. The last thing he needed was for people to think he was crazy for hearing them, and it took Ty himself quite a while to determine he wasn't crazy at all. Just another side effect of the bite from NOS-4-A2, he determined. Just another thing to make his life weirder than it already was.

It was a well kept secret from other organics, apparently. Robotic kind had their own private channel to talk to each other and share secret thoughts and feelings. Only they could hear it, and only they could communicate through it. As Ty found out, he could now do the former but thankfully not the latter. He could now hear the personal conversations of robots as they passed him by. He could hear the secret insults and praise they shared about organics.

He could hear their worry that he might change into the Wirewolf and attack them again. Whenever there was a pair of robots near him for an extended period of time, one would eventually cast a fleeting glance at him and then share with the other their worries about what Ty might do to them.

It was haunting, yes. He was learning to live with it and he wasn't sure what to do should someone find out. But until then, he just had to pretend as if he couldn't hear those voices that no other organic knew existed.

* * *

**Notes: **If you read my short story "Life's Not Fair" you would recognize the idea of the robots' private channel from that. The idea here is that, under the headcanon that NOS-4-A2 injects nanobots into his victims which then bound to Ty's cells, the nanobots allow Ty to hear this private channel, but since he's not a robot he can't actually communicate back.


	7. AP-99 - Auto Pilot Woes

**Summary:** AP-99 thinks over the attack on his freighter and the events the happened after.

**Notes:** See the beginning of "NOS-4-A2" if you don't remember who AP-99 is.

* * *

After his first freighter was destroyed, AP-99 was more wary about interstellar trips with mysterious cargos. The explosion was a mar on his perfectly good record. He had always been on time for deliveries and logging in to flight control, his cargo was kept in great condition with little jostling during the trip, and he never had any criticism from people calling into the "How's My Driving" department.

But nooo... Just after he logged in, on time as usual, Mr. Warp Darkmatter just HAD to attack. AP-99 was impressed that the pride of Star Command, Buzz Lightyear, came to rescue him, but his rookie team obviously had been at fault for Darkmatter managing to blow up his freighter. That robot ranger hardly managed to save him! They nearly blew to atoms! His black box even melted in the explosion so they couldn't tell what exactly he had been carrying in the first place.

Sure, Team Lightyear "salvaged the cargo", but only ONE box. AP-99 had hundreds of others he was supposed to deliver! And he couldn't log in what he had lost, meaning his company had to do a lot of work to figure out who they had to reimburse for the loss of packages, not to mention someone had to pay to replace the freighter in the first place.

He was out of commission for a month. His company had to do maintenance to see exactly how Darkmatter was able to get on board with so many hornets without him knowing. He was nearly convinced that they would just sell him for scrap and replace him with a new model Auto Pilot!

Finally, he was given a small upgrade, installed into a new freighter, and given a new job delivering something less likely to be stolen: Peevian Slug Guano.


End file.
